Passaic adopts 2025 budget and moves forward with State Street parking deck operations

Passaic — The Passaic City Council on Sept. 2 adopted the city’s 2025 municipal budget totaling $118,671,000, and took steps to implement fees and operations for the new State Street public parking deck.

During the meeting the business administrator and finance staff said the city holds a $32 million operating surplus and plans to use approximately $13 million of it this year to reduce tax pressures while preserving reserves. The council opened and closed a public hearing on the budget before voting to adopt the resolution.

The mayor earlier highlighted the recently opened six-story State Street parking deck that adds more than 300 public spaces with EV charging stations and digital signage. Council members then introduced an ordinance to set parking-deck fees — including per-hour and monthly fees — and staff explained a shared-service/bonding arrangement whereby the parking authority’s revenue and reserves were modeled to cover debt service even at conservative occupancy levels.

City staff said the deck project was largely grant- and bond-funded; the parking authority retains reserves from prior debt service and, under a shared-service agreement, will transfer an amount estimated to cover the bond payment. Council members asked for the calculations to be provided to the council in a future meeting; city staff agreed to provide the revenue and bond-service analysis.

What’s next: the council scheduled second and final readings for parking and traffic-related ordinances and asked administration to provide budget projections and parking-deck revenue modeling to the council for ongoing monitoring.